Building Your “A” Team in 2026
Most leaders say they want a high-performing team.
Very few have the skill or the will to build one intentionally.
As we move into 2026, teams are operating under more pressure, faster timelines, and higher expectations than ever before. Complexity is higher, expectations are heavier, and inefficiencies are exposed faster than ever. The idea that a team will simply “figure it out” over time is no longer realistic.
Building an A Team in 2026 is not about hiring a few high performers and hoping chemistry takes care of the rest. It requires understanding how teams actually develop, why performance resets when people change, and how leaders can unlock the potential of the team they already have.
High-Performing Teams Are Built
High-performing teams are rarely accidental. They are built.
They are built through clarity of purpose, strong norms, disciplined leadership behavior, and systems that support performance instead of relying on a few people to carry everything. They are reinforced through expectations that are explicit rather than assumed.
In 2026, leaders who build A Teams will be those who stop chasing perfection and start focusing on alignment, adaptability, and accountability.
The Reality of Team Development (And Why It Never Stops)
One of the most overlooked truths about teams is this:
Team development restarts every time a new person joins.
Teams move through predictable stages of development:
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Leaders often assume that once a team reaches the performing stage, it stays there. In reality, performance is fragile. When a new team member joins, the system changes.
Here’s why.
A new person introduces new dynamics:
Roles shift, even subtly
Relationships need to be rebuilt
Trust has to be re-earned
Communication patterns change
Psychological safety is tested
Even a high-performing team will temporarily move backward into forming and storming. This is not a failure. It is a reset.
Strong leaders anticipate this disruption and guide the team through it. Weak leaders react to it and label it as a people problem.
Adjourning matters too. When a team dissolves, a project ends, or a key member leaves, leaders who acknowledge the closure help teams transition forward with less friction. Ignoring adjourning creates unresolved tension that carries into the next team cycle.
Why Leaders Misjudge Team Performance
Many leaders mistake comfort for performance.
When things feel smooth, leaders assume the team is performing well. When tension appears, they assume something is wrong. In reality, tension often means the team is recalibrating.
The issue is not tension.
The issue is tension that goes unaddressed.
A Teams are not conflict-free. They know how to work through disagreement without damaging trust or momentum.
What Google Learned About High-Performing Teams
One of the most referenced studies on team effectiveness comes from Google’s Project Aristotle.
Google expected to find that the best teams were made up of the smartest people, the most experienced, or the strongest personalities. That is not what the data showed.
The single most important factor was psychological safety.
Psychological safety looks like:
Team members asking questions without fear
People admitting mistakes early
Junior employees challenging senior leaders
Ideas being evaluated on merit, not hierarchy
There are real-world examples of this mindset. Elon Musk has publicly stated that if someone is ever punished or dismissed for asking a question or raising a concern, it should be escalated directly. The message is clear: suppressing information is more dangerous than being wrong.
The opposite is also true.
When psychological safety is absent, the consequences can be catastrophic. The Space Shuttle Challenger explosion is a well-documented example. Engineers raised concerns about the O-ring failure, but fear, hierarchy, and pressure prevented those concerns from stopping the launch. The result was tragedy.
Teams do not fail because they lack intelligence.
They fail because information does not move freely.
High Standards and Psychological Safety Can Coexist
Psychological safety does not mean lowering expectations. It allows teams to meet high expectations without fear.
Teams with strong safety and high standards:
Learn faster
Surface issues earlier
Hold each other accountable
Recover from mistakes more quickly
Leaders shape this environment through how they respond to errors, feedback, and dissent. Behavior sets the tone long before values ever do.
Build the Team You Already Have
One of the most expensive leadership myths is that performance problems can always be solved by hiring someone new.
Research cited by SHRM has shown that replacing an employee can cost up to 214 percent of the individual’s salary when factoring in lost productivity, rehiring, onboarding, and ramp-up time.
Before adding headcount, strong leaders ask:
Are expectations clear?
Are roles defined or assumed?
Is feedback happening early and often?
Are systems supporting performance or creating friction?
In many cases, the team you already have is capable of far more than they are currently delivering.
From Liability to Asset (Individually and Collectively)
In a previous blog, Asset vs. Liability, I explored how every individual begins as a liability when they start something new. The same principle applies at the team level.
When someone is new, the team invests more than it receives. Over time, that balance should shift. The goal is to help individuals and teams move from liability to asset as quickly and intentionally as possible.
That requires:
Clear onboarding
Access to context, not just tasks
Early feedback
Relationship-building
Defined expectations for the first 30, 60, and 90 days
Without this structure, teams stall. With it, performance accelerates.
Systems Over Heroics
A Teams are not dependent on one or two people working harder than everyone else.
They are supported by systems.
A simple example is decision-making. Instead of relying on one leader to approve everything, strong teams establish decision rights. Who decides? Who contributes? Who needs to be informed?
Other examples include:
Clear meeting agendas and outcomes
Defined escalation paths
Shared documentation and playbooks
Standardized onboarding processes
Systems create reliability. Heroics create burnout.
The Leader Is Always Part of the System
Leaders are never neutral.
How they respond to pressure, mistakes, and conflict becomes the blueprint for the team. High-performing teams reflect high-performing leadership.
What an A Team Looks Like in 2026
In 2026, A Teams will be defined less by individual brilliance and more by collective effectiveness.
They will adapt quickly, communicate clearly under pressure, hold each other accountable, and perform consistently without burning out.
They will not be perfect.
They will be aligned.
Final Thought
Building your A Team in 2026 requires intention, discipline, and leadership behavior that matches the standards you set.
If this resonated and you want to explore how Mogul Performance helps leaders and organizations build high-performing teams, visit the contact page to start the conversation.
High performance does not happen by accident. It is built.
